On Blue (2022) is a collaborative project between filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul and composer Rafiq Bhatia. The film serves as a companion piece to Weerasethakul’s earlier film Blue (2018), in which actress Jenjira Pongpas Widner lies between states of sleep and wakefulness at night, surrounded by shifting backdrops from Thai folk theater. Originally commissioned for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the 2022 FotoFocus Biennial by Liquid Music, On Blue features a new instrumental arrangement for the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble conducted by Tim Weiss. Inspired by “moments of awakening, of sunrise,” ambient sounds and orchestral textures complement the film’s serene pacing, evoking a sense of intimacy and transience between the physical and spiritual realms.

Following the performance On Blue, P. Staff and Jamieson Webster discuss dreams, death, and subjectivity, drawing from the performance’s dreamscape to examine consciousness and collectivity through life and death.

Apichatpong Weerasethakul is a Thai filmmaker and artist widely regarded for his poetic, surreal, and sensorial approach to storytelling. Drawing from Thai animism and Buddhism and deeply steeped in Thailand’s tumultuous politics, his films feature non-linear narratives melding spiritual and realist scenes into slow-paced, dreamlike atmospheres. His 2004 film Tropical Malady, awarded the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, depicts a romance between a soldier and a country boy in contemporary Thailand alongside a mythical fable of pursuit between a soldier and a tiger shaman. Weerasethakul was the first Thai artist to win the prestigious Palm d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival for his 2010 feature Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, an adaptation of a 1983 book by the Buddhist monk Phra Sripariyattiweti about a dying man who is visited by ghosts and spirits as he contemplates the last days of his life. In addition to his narrative films, Weerasethakul is recognized for videos and installations similarly traversing the real and the mythical in their exploration of memory, myth, and desire. His work has been exhibited at major art institutions such as the 58th Venice Biennale (2019); the Centre Pompidou, Paris (2024); and the Museum of Modern Art, New York (2021). 

Rafiq Bhatia is an American guitarist, producer, and Academy Award-nominated composer known for an innovative, sculptural approach to music that eludes genre classifications. Since 2014, Bhatia has been a member of the band Son Lux, whose highlights include scoring the Academy Award-winning film Everything Everywhere All At Once (2023) and collaborations with artists such as David Byrne, André Benjamin, and Mitski. Bhatia’s first LP for the label Anti- Records, Breaking English (2018), was widely acclaimed for its hybridization of electronic textures and intricate instrumental sound. His 2020 EP Standards Vol. 1—a collection of jazz standards reinterpreted through an electroacoustic lens—was used as the soundtrack for a dance work toured internationally by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Company. In 2025, Bhatia released the EP Each Dream, A Melting Door, in which his electronically stratified guitar combines with Chris Pattishall’s grand piano in abstract melodies that encourage deep listening. Bhatia has been commissioned as a composer by the Kronos Quartet and Walker Arts Center, among many others, and he has contributed to recordings on labels such as Brownswood and ECM. Bhatia is a Jerome Foundation Composer/Sound Artist Fellow, and lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

The Aspen Contemporary Ensemble (ACE) was created to support the training and performance needs of composers of contemporary music. The ensemble’s audition-selected members include: Antonina Styczen, flute; Ian McEdwards, clarinet; Seth Schultheis, piano; Xin Yi Chong, percussion; Laura Gamboa, violin; Maya Irizarry Lambright, violin; Felix Veser, viola; Miles Reed, cello, Lukas Munsell, double bass. A stripped-down version of this ensemble became the standard instrumentation for hundreds of compositions in the twentieth century, inspired by the scoring of Schoenberg’s Pierrot lunaire. ACE appears regularly throughout the summer playing the energetic and challenging new chamber music of the world’s leading artists. The ensemble also provides concert performances of new works by students in the Susan and Ford Schumann Center for Composition Studies, offering young composers the essential experience of hearing their music performed by a live ensemble. ACE’s residency is made possible by an endowment from Susan and Ford Schumann.

Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Rafiq Bhatia’s On Blue was originally commissioned by Liquid Music for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the 2022 FotoFocus Biennial. For AIR, the performance features a new instrumental arrangement for the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble. On Blue is co-presented by Aspen Art Museum and the Aspen Music Festival and School.

On Blue is curated by Vic Brooks, AIR Curator at Large, and Stella Bottai, Senior Curator at Large.

On Blue is made possible through a generous gift from Steve Tisch and Jamie Tisch.

Image: Apichatpong Weerasethakul, On Blue, 2022. Image courtesy the artist.